Armchair, sofa or the like, made up entirely of a resiliently yieldable material without any carrier framework



1958 L. BULLERI El'AL 2,849,058

ARMCHAIR, SOFA OR THE LIKE, MADE UP ENTIRELYDF A RESILIENTLY YIELDABLEMATERIAL WITHOUT ANY CARRIER FRAMEWORK Filed Sept, 19, 1955 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 1

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ARMCHAIR, SOFA OR THE LIKE, MADE UP ENTIRELY 0F MATERIAL WITHOUT ANYCARRIER FRAMEWORK A RESILIENTLY YIELDABLE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept.19, 1955 INI/EmroRs TTo BULLERI LEONE W REM/{T0 (3 u LLLIZI UnitedStates Patent ARMCHAIR, SOFA OR THE LIKE, MADE UP EN- TlRELY OF ARESILIENTLY YIELDABLE MATE- RIAL WITHOUT ANY CARRIER FRAMEWORK LeonettoBulleri and Renato Bulleri, Cascina, Italy Application September 19,1955, Serial No. 535,212 Claims priority, application Italy September21, 1954 4 Claims. (Cl. 155-179 This invention relates to articles offurniture such as sofas, armchairs and the like, provided with yieldablesurfaces. Presently these objects are formed by a stiff reinforcement orframework, with which pliant and resiliently yieldable members, such asmetallic wire springs, layers of rubber, sponge rubber and the like orstuflings of fibres, are combined and the whole assembly is completed bya suitable outer covering.

The present invention relates to a different manufacturing method ofarticles of furniture of the above mentioned type and it also relates tothe articles obtained by the said method.

According to the present invention we provide an article of furnituresuch as an armchair, sofa or the like, characterised in that it is madeup entirely of a resiliently yieldable material, such as sponge rubberor an equivalent material, without any supporting framework at least inits upper portion, the supporting function being carried out by theresiliently yieldable material.

In order to obtain the necessary consistency of the articles inquestion, the resiliently yieldable material,

which is used advantageously but not necessarily must offer differentproperties of resilient suppleness in its various zones, for the purposeof assuring a suflicient yielding and offering the required comfortalong the outer layers, and offering sufiicient resistance todeformations in the zones which are required to support the stresses thearticle is subjected to and restrict the deformations of the article offurniture.

The articles of furniture, such as armchairs, sofas and the like, may beformed by one or more members combined with one another. Each of thesaid members may be made up of a single body in practice in a single dieby using suitable arrangements so as to modify the consistency of thematerial in its various zones. Each member may alternatively, beobtained by an appropriate fixture of blocks and layers of resilientlyyieldable material to one another, the various blocks and layers havingsimilar or different properties of resilient yielding.

As mentioned above, a method of manufacture of articles of furniture ofthe above mentioned type provides for the forming of one or more shapedmembers for the construction of the article, the members being made upof sponge rubber or similar resiliently yieldable material, and themanufacture is such that it is possible to obtain a variation of theresilient suppleness properties for each member over the variousmembers. An article of furniture of this kind preferably is made byconnecting a number of layers or blocks of sponge rubber to one anotherand by using a material having different resilient properties for theformation of the various zones. The formation of a member or directly ofan article of furniture may be provided for by interconnecting thevarious layers, subjected to different resilient deformations one toanother, so as to obtain the outer shape. The outer shape may becompleted by removing the material by means of a cutting tool or anabrasive tool, such as a grinding wheel, a rasp or the like.

An article of furniture or a member for the article of furniturepreferably is completed on its surface zones,

or at least on the surfaces whereupon the sitters body rests, by meansof layers of sponge rubber or the like, extended parallel to the finalsurface, the layers being formed of a relatively very soft material.

In the design of an armchair, sofa or another article of furniture ofthis kind, it is sometimes appropriate although not indispensable, totake into consideration the requirements of the resistance todeformations and make the contours, which allow for the formations ofbuttresses or similar shapes, capable of withstanding, according totensile strength, flexion and shearing, and the heavy stresses whichcertain zones, in particular those acting as parts of the back aresubjected to. The buttresses or similar formations may be obtained bysuitably forming the arms or by suitable bending of the backs, or in anyother suitable Way.

The article of furniture, such as an armchair or the like, may beprovided with a layer for resting on the floor or the like, upon whichthe article of furniture is to be rested, which layer is also formed ofthe same resiliently-yieldable material, such as rubber, sponge rubberor the like. Alternatively, the article of furniture may be provided atthe bottom with a stilf base layer, such as, for example, a Woodenplatform or any similar structure, which may also be provided with feet.The yieldable material, forming the article of furniture, is anchored tothe stiff base layer, and the base layer may be partly covered at leastby a layer of the yieldable material. The base layer may be providedwith upwardly directed, extended stiff structures.

The accompanying drawing shows, constructional embodiments of the In thedrawings:

Figs. 1 and 2 are respectively a vertical cross-section and a plan viewof an armchair, embodying the invention, Fig. 2 being taken on the planeof the line IIII of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 shows in a perspective view another type of an armchair;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a sofa constructed according to the invention;and g Figs. 5, 6 and 7 respectively are a top plan view, a cross-sectionon the line VI-VI in Fig. 5 and a partial cross-section on the lineVIIVII in Fig. 6 of another construction of the armchair.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2:

The armchair shown in these figures is formed by two elements, oneacting as a seat and the other as a back made so as to form the armswithout any joints.

The base is formed by a pair of wooden boards or the like 1a and 1bspaced by struts 1c so as to form a horseshoe base, two cross-beams 2and 3 being arranged between the wings of the base. The base rests onfeet 4 and the back 5 is secured to. the base and invention.

is extended to the front at 5a in order to form the arms.

The seat 6 is formed by a number of layers 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d and 6e whichare substantially parallel to the base and are suitably formed andshaped, both in thickness and plan profile, so as to form the seat andto be adapted to the back 5. At leastone layer 7 covers the assembly ofthe said layers 6a-6e. that the resilient suppleness of the materialforming the layers should be increased from the layer 6a to the layer62, the layer 7 being the softest. The layers may all be formed ofsponge rubber, made in a known way, in order that they shall have anappropriate different resilient suppleness or of a resiliently yieldablematerial the lower layer 6a being made up of a harder inatebeams 2 and3.

by way of example, i

It is appropriate The assembly 5, 5a which is anchored to the base 1a,1b, 1c is formed of superimposed adjacent layers or blocks 9 arranged soas to form the interior portion of the back and the layers are formed ofa more substantially yieldable material in the upper zones and of astiffer materal in the lower zones. The substantially horizontal layers9 may be of U-shape, as shown in the plan view in Fig. 2 and they mayeach be onepiece or formed by elements or sectors for saving inmanufacture as also shown in Fig. 2. Soft layers 10 of rubber or thelike material cover the front surface portion of the back and the arms,the layers being bent at 10a in order to obtain an upper frontperipheral shape. Layers 11 of a stiffer rubber than that used for thelayers 10 are located in the rear and increase th strength of the back.

The various layers and blocks made up of rubber, sponge rubber or thelike, are fixed to one another, for example, by putty. The layers, andmore particularly the outer more substantially yieldable layers, may beprovided with and have imparted to them a required shape and thicknessby the deformation of the material. Such deformation will remainpermanent, owing to the fixing and the tension created by thedeformations being also permanent. This contributes in facilitating theshaping of the members and in modifying the deformation according torequirements.

If required, the assembly may be appropriately covered by fabric,leather or the like.

When a person sits on an armchair of this kind and bears against theback 5, the latter is capable of supporting the required stress bothowing to the resistance offered by the layers forming the back and owingto the resistance to the deformation offered by the arms structure 512forming buttresses which are subjected to tensile strength, flexion andshearing in the direction of their longitudinal vertical cross-section.Low stiff structures may be provided with the base and may be upwardlydirected as shown at 12, but are such as to leave the characteristicdeformability of the member unaltered.

In the construction shown in Fig. 3, the back of the armchair is higherthan the arms connected to it, the arms also operating in such a way asto increase the resistance to the thrust, due to the person restingagainst the back. The arms may also be reduced in dimension or eveneliminated, in which case the resistance would be entrusted to thesingle structure of the back made up of an appropriately stiff material.

Fig. 4 shows a sofa wherein the back 13 is laterally supported by thearms 13a and at some intermediate positions by buttress projections 13bwhich are formed by a suitable shaping of the front surface of the backor of the surface separating the stiffer zones and the softer zones. Thebuttresses may be eliminated by increasing the thickness and/or thestiffness of the material.

In the modfication shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the base of the armchairis formed by two wooden U-shaped slats 21a and 21b spaced by the struts210 which are partly extended in the interior and support an annularframe 22, carrying flexible strips 23 which are transversally arrangedand spaced. A single block 24 of sponge rubber, made in a die and havingconstant or different resilient properties in the various zones, lies onthe frame 22 and on the strips 23. The block 25, which forms the backand arms, is secured to the base formed by the elements 21a, 21b and21c. This block 25 is made up of sponge rubber and has constant ordifierent resilient properties in the various zones.

The drawings only show certain embodiments of the invention, which canbe varied in their shapes and arrangements, while falling within thescope of the following claims.

What we claim is:

1. An armchair including a rigid base, a back supported on said base,said back continuing around the base and forwardly thereof to form sidearm rests, said back being composed of mutually fastened togetherportions of material having different resilient yielding characteristicsand a resilient seat supported on said base between said arm rests.

2. An armchair including a rigid base of horseshoe shape, including sidewing portions, cross beams extending across the space between said Wingportions, a back supported on said base at the rear thereof, said backcontinuing around the base and forwardly thereof so as to form side armrests, said back and arm rests being composed of horizontally disposedlayers of rubber, the rear surface of said back and arm rests beingcomposed of layers of rubber harder than the horizontally disposedlayers, the front surface of the back and arm rests being composed oflayers of rubber softer than the horizontally disposed layers, all ofsaid layers being fastened together, an annular seat frame supported onsaid crossbeams, within the confines of the horseshoe base, and a seatcomposed of superimposed layers of rubber fastened together andsupported on said frame.

3. An armchair including a rigid base of horseshoe shape including sidewing portions, said base being formed of two spaced parallel boards,perpendicular struts holding said boards in spaced relation, cross-beamsextending across the space between said wing portions, a back supportedon said base, said back continuing around the base and forwardly thereofso as to form said arm rests, said back and arm rests being composed ofhorizontally disposed layers of rubber, the rear surface of said backand arm rests being composed of layers of rubber harder than thehorizontally disposed layers, the front surface of the back and armrests being composed of layers of rubber softer than the horizontallydisposed layers, all of said layers being fastened together, an annularseat frame supported on said crossbeams, within the confines of thehorseshoe base, and a seat composed of superimposed layers of rubberfastened together, the lower layer of said seat being more rigid thanthe upper layers and resting on the seat frame, and a cover composed ofa layer of soft rubber stretched over the upper and front surfaces ofthe seat.

4. An armchair including a rigid base of horseshoe shape including sidewing portions, said base being formed of two spaced parallel boards,perpendicular struts holding said boards in spaced relation, supportingbeams extending across the space between said wing portions, a backsupported on said base at the rear thereof, said back continuing aroundthe sides of the base and forwardly thereof so as to form side armrests, said back and side arm rests being composed of superimposedlayers of resilient material, the rear surface of said back and side armrests being composed of layers of resilient material harder than thesuperimposed layers, the front and inner surface of the back and armrests being composed of layers of resilient material softer than thesuperimposed layers, an annular seat frame supported on said supportingbeams, flexible strips extending across the space provided by said seatframe, and a seat of resilient material supported on said seat frame andflexible strips.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS975,258 Kurtz Nov. 8, 1910 2,150,287 Minor Mar. 14, 1939 2,180,304 MinorNov. 14, 1939 FOREIGN PATENTS 5,686/27 Australia May 20, 1927 354,281Italy Nov. 17, 1937 447,100 Great Britain May 12, 1936

